Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello,

I am in Broome WA, very hot and humid at the moment. I have finished constructing my first IBC system on the weekend. and it is flooding and draining with no problems.

It floods for 21 minutes and drains for only 5 minutes. Are these ratios ok? I read in the posts on here that there is no fixed answer, but a lot of posts indicate a faster flood and a slower drain is preferable?


I am also worried about when it rains (wet season) that my clay bally might float away when the grow bed over fills. I am thinking I will cut a bunch of drainage slits near the top of the grow bed. Does anyone else have this issue?


Anyway, happy to be here.

J Mo

Hello J Mo!

How are you flooding and draining your system? With a timer or a bell siphon?

If it's via a bell siphon your growbed shouldn't over flow but your fish tank or sump tank (what ever is the lowest part of your system) will.

Hi Arbe,

I am using a bell siphon, however when it rains here, it really rains!!! I am worried it wont drain quick enough.

John.

Very true about the rain. If you are worried you could cut slits/drill holes or install an over flow in your grow bed.

How big is your growbed? Just thinking if it's only taking 5 minutes to empty and it's 1 square meter by 300 deep it should cope with a down pour rain.

Not a bad part of the world! We did re-do your town bore field a few years ago :-)

I know what you mean about rain, a second standpipe a bit higher than the one under your bell should sort you out

I hope you throw a few cherrabin (spelling undoubtedly wrong) in your sump!

Heavy rain will dilute your nutrient base an if your system fills right up and overflows onto the ground you lose nutrient , so maybe a cover of some sort would be worth while , 90% shade cloth will run most off if it has sufficient angle , this could be easily rolled back when not needed on a roller , handy to have in place for extreme hot days as well .

Thanks for the advice guys.

So it rained last night, and the siphon worked perfectly and it never looked like it might overflow. I still think I need to cover it, there was a lot of overflow from the fish tank.

Do you guys think my rate of 21 min to flood and 5 min to drain will be ok?

J mo

21 and 5 will be fine.

So how did the symphony cope with that cyclone?

Hope everything else is ok too, I got sent a photo of a dumpster floating away!

Yeah, it sure did rain!!!

The difference is that the drainage is built for that sort of thing up here, so it was all gone in a day. Certainly made things humid.

Yeah it found its way down here for Boxing Day. Difference between up there and down here is that SA isn't prepared for a storm. There are still a few thousand people without electricity and parts of the phone network down almost a week later.

Hi J-mo,

Where did you get your IBC's from? I grabbed the last one from North West Hydro but I'm chasing another to use for grow beds (They aren't getting anymore till dry season). Also are you using barramundi? I've only just finished my design and was hoping to get it up and running before the dry. Thanks.

Luke